Pope Innocent III spent most of his time as the pope preaching a Crusade. When he began, he was trying to mobilize a Crusade to to recover Jerusalem in the wake of the failure of the Third Crusade and the Fourth Crusade. Pope innocent was preoccupied with the Albigensians and preached a Crusade against them. He preached yet another at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, but he had died in the year 1216 without seeing the results.
Three days after his death, a new pope was elected as Honorius III who had immediately took up where pope innocent had left off, writing letters to the monarchs of Europe. Few answered to his call, and those who did only sent very small armies. Response was better amongst the French and the German barons, the Frisians promised to provide a fleet.
A portion of the army sailed in April of 1218 and arrived in Acre with most of the leaders. There they decided that the best course of action was to attack Egypt. King John of Jerusalem knew that there would be no point in attacking Jerusalem as long as Egypt was under Muslim control, but if Egypt was captured by the Christians then Jerusalem would be as good as theirs.
The Crusaders left Acre on May 24 1218, for Egypt.
The first target was Damietta, a town in the Nile delta, which guarded the main route up river to Cairo, the main objective. Cairo was where the Sultan lived, thus capturing the capital would lead to the rest of Egypt to fall. Damietta was the first critical step.
About this time the Egyptian vizier al-Kamil, had raised an army and had marched it to a nearby town of al-Adiliya, but the army was not strong enough to risk a direct attack. All he could do was to occasionally harass and lead discouraging extensive raids. The Crusader weren't very strong either, they had now decided to wait for reinforcements, the armies in Italy, before risking a siege of Demietta itself. Most of the Frisians went home angering the other crusaders.
The Christians were cheered to learn that the Sultan had died on the 31st of August and was succeeded by the commander in the field, al-Kamil.
The expected reinforcements arrived in early September, a number of and other lords came with their forces, buyt the most influential arrival was a papal legate, Cardinal Pelagius. Honorous like Innocent believed that a Crusade could only succeed if it was lead by the Church instead of being led by the lay lords, and he sent a strong and forceful person in Pelagius.Despite the grumblings of the barons, Pelagious quickly established himself in the councils of war.
With their numbers increased tremendously, the Crusaders advanced onto the walls of Damietta on September 1218.
During the Siege
In October, al-Kamil tried twice to break the Christian camp. He was on the West side of the Nile river while the Crusaders were on the East side, the side where Damietta stood. Twice the Egyptians were able to cross the Nile and tried to attack but on both tries they were sent back with heavy losses. After the second battle, al-Kamil concentrated more on defending his position than trying to drive away the Christians. He built barricades and defense works ,he sank ships in the river to keep Christians ships from sailing past the city.
By November it was clear that the Crusaders were not going to be able to work their way up to the Nile , so they tried to open up an abandoned canal. They had planned to sail their ships up the canal and attack the city from two sides They succeeded in their dredging but a storm in late November flooded the Christian camp leading to great destruction which was followed by disease.
The weather was miserable and the camps on both sides deteriorated. With progress at a standstill, Cardinal Pelagius emerged as the leader of the Christians. This was not well received by all of the Crusaders, but a new leadership was needed amongst the Crusaders and Cardinal Pelagius had a great victory to support him.
Retreat Of the Egyptians
At the beginning of February, al-Kamil received news that one of his most powerful amirs was plotting against him. The amir was Imad-ad-Din, a Kurdish chieftain who commanded the loyalty of the Kurdish troops , which constituted the bulk of al-Kamil's troops. While the sultan was able to capture the conspirators, he did not know how far the plot extended. That very night al-Kamil rode for Cairo.
At the dawn of February 5th 1219 the Egyptian army learned that their Kurdish captain was in chains and that the Sultan himself had fled for Cairo. Confusion and panic had broken in the camp and troops scattered in every direction. A spy camp over to the Christian camp to inform them of what was happening. The Christian cheerfully occupied the Egyptian camp.
The Egyptian officers were able to form another army a few miles upstream, but they had lost their protective position around Damietta. Because of this victory Cardinal Pelagius was becoming acknowledged as a military leader.
The Capture Of Damietta
Conditions within Damietta ware growing desperate. The city had been cut off since February and the food was nearly gone. Moreover the Nile had not flooded that season, so all of Egypt was facing famine.
On the night of November 4, four Christian sentries noticed that one of the towers of Demietta seemed to be abandoned. They climbed a ladder and found it empty. They returned to camp and reported it and a full force was dispatched immediately. A whole section of the gate was occupied, then a gate was opened, and the Christian army rushed into the city.
Al-kamil withdrew in the morning as there was nothing left for him to do. There was no massacre of the defenders mainly because there was hardly anyone left to massacre. There was plenty of loot to be found in the empty houses, and much of this was taken by away despite strict orders by the commanders.
The city itself was mostly undamaged, so the Christian armies were safe behind the walls of the city. They were supplied by ships as the Italians ruled the sea. The almost immediately began to conquer the southern lands, capturing Tannis on November 23rd.
Victory over the city managed to divide the army more than defeat ever had done. John of Brienne expected that Damietta to be his, but Pelagius said that the city belonged to the West in general. It isn’t clear to whom he had given the city to but he openly opposed John. This managed to drive the Templars and the Hospitallers into John’s camp, so Pelagius was now mainly supported by Italians. Serious fighting broke out between the factions. The Italians forced the French entirely frmm the city and then the Templars and the Hospitallers did the same to the Italians. The spoils of the city were redistributed and this brought back some peace to the army.
These squabbles probably saved Cairo from capture. Al-Kamil’s army was demoralized after the loss of the city, and most of Egypt was starving. The Sultan spent the winter a few miles upriver, waiting for the Christians to advance, but the Christians did not come and this allowed him to slowly strengthen his hand.
Pelagius in Command
At last the Crusade was led by Cardinal Pelagius who was not a tactician but was a determined champion. He took a strict hand, enforcing strict discipline and enjoining severe punishments to those who shirked in their duties or tried to go home again.
Despite the determination, he wasn’t able to lead the army on any meaningful activity, mainly because he was a cleric and not a baron and so had no direct authority to command an army. He had also lost support of the army. The whole army was waiting for the king to come and lead them to victory.
While they were waiting for King Frederick II to arrive al-Kamil had succeeded in turning what had been a winter camp made in desperation into a fully fledged military city.
The Army Moves Out
Frederick never arrived, but he did send most of his army including Louis of Bavaria as his representative who had agreed on an immediate offensive strategy. All those before him assumed that he spoke for the emperor.
Pelagius also agreed. The Crusaders formed their army in their old camp on June 29. King John arrived on July 7 urging on caution but he was ignored.
The army set out on July 17. It was one of the largest of the Crusader armies. The Egyptians retreated when they saw the size of the army. Pelagius moved out in pursuit.
The Egyptians took up a position behind the Bahr as-Sagir river. The Christians ran after them and set up camp. This was where the battle for Egypt would be decided.
Trapped, Disaster and the End of the Crusade
The Christians were in a death trap. When they had marched up into the angle formed by the Nile and the Bahr as-Saghir, the army had crossed a dry canal. No one had considered a danger. Furthermore, Pelagius had neglected to bring adequate supplies, thinking to capture the enemy spplies quickly. Once it was clear that Mansourah (the Muslim camp) could not be quickly taken, fortifications were built on the other sides of the triangle.
By August the Nile was rising every day. Soon, the waters were high enough to flow into the canal. Within days the water was high enough to send ships down it, cutting the Christians from retreat and from sending resupplies from being sent down it. The fleet was trapped, the army was trapped and there was food only enough for twenty days.
On August 26, without ever fighting a great battle the Christians retreated.
The first thing the common soldiers did was get drunk. They couldn’t bear to leave behind all their wine (not much has changed since then if you ask me). Most of them were in various stages of intoxication when the order cam to move out. The Teutonic Knights set fire to the supplies in order to deny them to the enemy as it “seemed like a good idea at the time”.
Having been alerted by the flames that the Christians were retreating, al-Kamil ordered the banks of the canals to be cut. Water flooded the ground on which the Christians were retreating and the soldiers found themselves wadding in the mud or falling in the gullies now filled with water. The Egyptians attacked.
Many of the infantry perished (seeing as though they were fighting at night in the mud while drunk). The remnant of the army withdrew to the camp, which now had no supplies (curtsies of the Tutonic Knights).
The fleet tried to escape too. Few ships managed to escape the Egyptian blockade including the one containing the one carrying Cardinal Pelagius who concluded that all was lost from the safety of Damietta. He opened negotiations with al-Kamil two days later, on August 28th. By the 30th, the terms were settled and the Crusade was over.
Pope Innocent III spent most of his time as the pope preaching a Crusade. When he began, he was trying to mobilize a Crusade to to recover Jerusalem in the wake of the failure of the Third Crusade and the Fourth Crusade. Pope innocent was preoccupied with the Albigensians and preached a Crusade against them. He preached yet another at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, but he had died in the year 1216 without seeing the results.
Three days after his death, a new pope was elected as Honorius III who had immediately took up where pope innocent had left off, writing letters to the monarchs of Europe. Few answered to his call, and those who did only sent very small armies. Response was better amongst the French and the German barons, the Frisians promised to provide a fleet.
A portion of the army sailed in April of 1218 and arrived in Acre with most of the leaders. There they decided that the best course of action was to attack Egypt. King John of Jerusalem knew that there would be no point in attacking Jerusalem as long as Egypt was under Muslim control, but if Egypt was captured by the Christians then Jerusalem would be as good as theirs.
The Crusaders left Acre on May 24 1218, for Egypt.
The first target was Damietta, a town in the Nile delta, which guarded the main route up river to Cairo, the main objective. Cairo was where the Sultan lived, thus capturing the capital would lead to the rest of Egypt to fall. Damietta was the first critical step.
About this time the Egyptian vizier al-Kamil, had raised an army and had marched it to a nearby town of al-Adiliya, but the army was not strong enough to risk a direct attack. All he could do was to occasionally harass and lead discouraging extensive raids. The Crusader weren't very strong either, they had now decided to wait for reinforcements, the armies in Italy, before risking a siege of Demietta itself. Most of the Frisians went home angering the other crusaders.
The Christians were cheered to learn that the Sultan had died on the 31st of August and was succeeded by the commander in the field, al-Kamil.
The expected reinforcements arrived in early September, a number of and other lords came with their forces, buyt the most influential arrival was a papal legate, Cardinal Pelagius. Honorous like Innocent believed that a Crusade could only succeed if it was lead by the Church instead of being led by the lay lords, and he sent a strong and forceful person in Pelagius.Despite the grumblings of the barons, Pelagious quickly established himself in the councils of war.
With their numbers increased tremendously, the Crusaders advanced onto the walls of Damietta on September 1218.
During the Siege
In October, al-Kamil tried twice to break the Christian camp. He was on the West side of the Nile river while the Crusaders were on the East side, the side where Damietta stood. Twice the Egyptians were able to cross the Nile and tried to attack but on both tries they were sent back with heavy losses. After the second battle, al-Kamil concentrated more on defending his position than trying to drive away the Christians. He built barricades and defense works ,he sank ships in the river to keep Christians ships from sailing past the city.
By November it was clear that the Crusaders were not going to be able to work their way up to the Nile , so they tried to open up an abandoned canal. They had planned to sail their ships up the canal and attack the city from two sides They succeeded in their dredging but a storm in late November flooded the Christian camp leading to great destruction which was followed by disease.
The weather was miserable and the camps on both sides deteriorated. With progress at a standstill, Cardinal Pelagius emerged as the leader of the Christians. This was not well received by all of the Crusaders, but a new leadership was needed amongst the Crusaders and Cardinal Pelagius had a great victory to support him.
Retreat Of the Egyptians
At the beginning of February, al-Kamil received news that one of his most powerful amirs was plotting against him. The amir was Imad-ad-Din, a Kurdish chieftain who commanded the loyalty of the Kurdish troops , which constituted the bulk of al-Kamil's troops. While the sultan was able to capture the conspirators, he did not know how far the plot extended. That very night al-Kamil rode for Cairo.
At the dawn of February 5th 1219 the Egyptian army learned that their Kurdish captain was in chains and that the Sultan himself had fled for Cairo. Confusion and panic had broken in the camp and troops scattered in every direction. A spy camp over to the Christian camp to inform them of what was happening. The Christian cheerfully occupied the Egyptian camp.
The Egyptian officers were able to form another army a few miles upstream, but they had lost their protective position around Damietta. Because of this victory Cardinal Pelagius was becoming acknowledged as a military leader.
The Capture Of Damietta
Conditions within Damietta ware growing desperate. The city had been cut off since February and the food was nearly gone. Moreover the Nile had not flooded that season, so all of Egypt was facing famine.
On the night of November 4, four Christian sentries noticed that one of the towers of Demietta seemed to be abandoned. They climbed a ladder and found it empty. They returned to camp and reported it and a full force was dispatched immediately. A whole section of the gate was occupied, then a gate was opened, and the Christian army rushed into the city.
Al-kamil withdrew in the morning as there was nothing left for him to do. There was no massacre of the defenders mainly because there was hardly anyone left to massacre. There was plenty of loot to be found in the empty houses, and much of this was taken by away despite strict orders by the commanders.
The city itself was mostly undamaged, so the Christian armies were safe behind the walls of the city. They were supplied by ships as the Italians ruled the sea. The almost immediately began to conquer the southern lands, capturing Tannis on November 23rd.
Victory over the city managed to divide the army more than defeat ever had done. John of Brienne expected that Damietta to be his, but Pelagius said that the city belonged to the West in general. It isn’t clear to whom he had given the city to but he openly opposed John. This managed to drive the Templars and the Hospitallers into John’s camp, so Pelagius was now mainly supported by Italians. Serious fighting broke out between the factions. The Italians forced the French entirely frmm the city and then the Templars and the Hospitallers did the same to the Italians. The spoils of the city were redistributed and this brought back some peace to the army.
These squabbles probably saved Cairo from capture. Al-Kamil’s army was demoralized after the loss of the city, and most of Egypt was starving. The Sultan spent the winter a few miles upriver, waiting for the Christians to advance, but the Christians did not come and this allowed him to slowly strengthen his hand.
Pelagius in Command
At last the Crusade was led by Cardinal Pelagius who was not a tactician but was a determined champion. He took a strict hand, enforcing strict discipline and enjoining severe punishments to those who shirked in their duties or tried to go home again.
Despite the determination, he wasn’t able to lead the army on any meaningful activity, mainly because he was a cleric and not a baron and so had no direct authority to command an army. He had also lost support of the army. The whole army was waiting for the king to come and lead them to victory.
While they were waiting for King Frederick II to arrive al-Kamil had succeeded in turning what had been a winter camp made in desperation into a fully fledged military city.
The Army Moves Out
Frederick never arrived, but he did send most of his army including Louis of Bavaria as his representative who had agreed on an immediate offensive strategy. All those before him assumed that he spoke for the emperor.
Pelagius also agreed. The Crusaders formed their army in their old camp on June 29. King John arrived on July 7 urging on caution but he was ignored.
The army set out on July 17. It was one of the largest of the Crusader armies. The Egyptians retreated when they saw the size of the army. Pelagius moved out in pursuit.
The Egyptians took up a position behind the Bahr as-Sagir river. The Christians ran after them and set up camp. This was where the battle for Egypt would be decided.
Trapped, Disaster and the End of the Crusade
The Christians were in a death trap. When they had marched up into the angle formed by the Nile and the Bahr as-Saghir, the army had crossed a dry canal. No one had considered a danger. Furthermore, Pelagius had neglected to bring adequate supplies, thinking to capture the enemy spplies quickly. Once it was clear that Mansourah (the Muslim camp) could not be quickly taken, fortifications were built on the other sides of the triangle.
By August the Nile was rising every day. Soon, the waters were high enough to flow into the canal. Within days the water was high enough to send ships down it, cutting the Christians from retreat and from sending resupplies from being sent down it. The fleet was trapped, the army was trapped and there was food only enough for twenty days.
On August 26, without ever fighting a great battle the Christians retreated.
The first thing the common soldiers did was get drunk. They couldn’t bear to leave behind all their wine (not much has changed since then if you ask me). Most of them were in various stages of intoxication when the order cam to move out. The Teutonic Knights set fire to the supplies in order to deny them to the enemy as it “seemed like a good idea at the time”.
Having been alerted by the flames that the Christians were retreating, al-Kamil ordered the banks of the canals to be cut. Water flooded the ground on which the Christians were retreating and the soldiers found themselves wadding in the mud or falling in the gullies now filled with water. The Egyptians attacked.
Many of the infantry perished (seeing as though they were fighting at night in the mud while drunk). The remnant of the army withdrew to the camp, which now had no supplies (curtsies of the Tutonic Knights).
The fleet tried to escape too. Few ships managed to escape the Egyptian blockade including the one containing the one carrying Cardinal Pelagius who concluded that all was lost from the safety of Damietta. He opened negotiations with al-Kamil two days later, on August 28th. By the 30th, the terms were settled and the Crusade was over.